Thursday, 4 May 2017

The
suggestion which emerged in the report of that infamous dinner in a German newspaper a few days ago that Theresa May
was living in a different galaxy may have been unfair. A different galaxy is a step up from a
different planet true – but is it a big enough step up? Perhaps parallel universe might be a better
description. We learned three things in
particular about Theresa May’s universe yesterday.

We
learned that when people restate what they’ve been saying for months, that
amounts to a hardening of their position.
(That’s as silly as imagining that repeating the words “strong and
stable” ad infinitum turns them into a harder statement. Oh, wait a minute…) It’s a reasonable assumption that the
Brexiteers have never believed that the EU Commission of the EU27 meant a word
of anything that say, and would eventually back down if the UK shouted loudly
enough. But it seems that the rest of
the EU doesn’t understand that nothing which is said by a politician is ever
supposed to be taken seriously (as in ‘there will not be a snap election’, to quote
just one example). Foreigners, eh?

We
also learned that telling the UK that it can’t and won’t enjoy the same
benefits as a third party after refusing to pay the fees, abide by the rules,
or accept the referee’s jurisdiction is a ‘threat’ or some form of punishment. It’s a position which underlines that the
objective of at least some of the Brexiteers, from the outset, has been not
just Brexit but the destruction of the whole EU. Demanding that the EU accommodate one former
member by dropping most of the rules by which they operate is an entirely
consistent position, but hopelessly detached from reality, as events are
demonstrating.

Finally,
we learned that telling the world at least part of the truth about Brexit which
the UK Government would rather that electors didn’t know amounts to interfering
in the UK’s election, and is somehow on a par with Russian hacking of the Democrats
in the US election. It underlines, yet
again, that the current UK Government has little or no conception of the way in
which the EU works, despite the UK’s 40 years of membership. It is impossible for 27 countries to arrive
at, and maintain, a common line on an issue without discussion; and with that
many people involved, the discussions will inevitably be semi-public. Besides, expecting the EU to remain silent in
response to patently absurd statements about Brexit being made by UK ministers
is utterly unrealistic. For many of us,
injecting a bit of truth into the election debate about Brexit is providing
assistance, not interfering.

The
problem is, though, that her rhetoric will actually ‘work’ with a particular
target audience. Truth is a dispensable
element when trying to use confirmation bias to reinforce existing prejudices
and beliefs. Those prejudices and
beliefs have been fed a diet of lies and misinformation for many years,
creating a context in which May’s interpretation of events will be perceived as
being accurate by many. Ridiculing her
is too easy; unfortunately, she’s not the only one dwelling in that parallel
universe.